Means and appliance for cutting off the lids of square tins.



No. 797 128. PATENTED AUG. 15, 1905. Hu J, LANGLEY & W. E. SMITH.

MEANS AND APPLIANCE FOR CUTTING OFF THE LIDS OF SQUARE TINS. APPLICATION FILED SEPT. a, 1m.

} B v c fwr'aniars' 4M M w 413mm lU-ETTEE EATElT HENRY JAldES LANGLEY, 0F WELLS, AND i "VILLIAM ERNEST ell UTE, OF Ni N CANTON, EN GLAN D.

MEANS AND APPLIANCE FOR CUTTING OFF THE LIDS OF SQUARE TINS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 15, 1905.

Application filed fileptenlber 6, 1904. Serial No. 223,557.

To a who/11 1 1 727/114 coil/earn.-

Be it known that we, H nxuv Janus LANG- LEY, professor of music, a resident of 14 'Vicars Close, ells, and W IILLIAM Enx ns'r Siui'rn, professor of music, a resident of Laburnum Villas, l Vincanton, in the county of Somerset, England, subjects of the King of (:i-reat Britain, llreland, and the lsle oi Man, have invented. certain new and useful lmproved Means and Appliances for Cutting Oil the Lids oi Square Tins, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to means and appliances for cutting off the lids of hermeticallysealed square or longitudinally shaped tin boxes and which are principally intended to hold tobacco and such like substances.

Cutters for opening the tops of circular boxes are now in common use; but the package of circular tins involves a considerable waste of space which is avoided by using square or longitudinally-formed tin boxes.

ln carrying out our invention the cutting device is placed upon the removable lid, which is used after the sealed lid of the tin has been cut away. The tobacco is packed in the box and is hermetically scaled up with a top cover of thin tin. Our improved cutter is lixed in the removable lid and consists 01 a piece of steel turned over upon itself, one part of which is shaped and sharpened to cutting edges, preferably of a hall-diamond shape, and another portion, which is arranged to be slightly shorter than the cutting part, is bent away from the same and acts as a guide, as hereina't'ter described. This piece of steel is lixed in the side of the removable lid by cutting a portion of the tin lid, inserting the steel cutter, and closing the tin tightly upon it, so that the steel cutter and guide project below the lid. When the removable lid is first placed upon the complete box, the side of the steel cutter lies in close contact with the outside face of the box, and the bent-over portion forming the guide projects slightly. The distance between the guide and the cutter is very slightly more than the thickness of the metal box, and when there is a paper cover to the box-lid it may be arranged to cover the projecting guide.

Although we have described the cutter and guide as formed out of one piece, they may be two separate pieces placed in conjunction with each other as they are when the metal is bent over.

When it is desired to cut oil the top of the hermetically-sealed tin box, we take off the removable lid and insert the cutter through the thin top of the box close to the edge, so that the guide is outside the box and the cutter inside. We then push or pull the cutter along the edge of the box, when it will cut oil the thin tin top, leaving a clean edge. The corners of the box are preferably rounded oil, and the guide and cutter will travel all round. the box-top, cutting the same entirely away. The removable lid is then used as a box-cover in the usual manner.

in order that this invention may be more readily understood, reference ishad to the accompanying sheet of drawings, in which Figure 1 is a front view of the box fitted with a lid carrying our improved cutter and guide, here shown in front elevation. Fig. 2 is the same box, showing the cutter andv guide upon the lid in side elevation. Figs. 3 and A show the steel piece, respectively, in blank and bent over to :Form cutter and guide. Fig. 5 shows another term of blank for the cutter and guide bent over upon itself at the dotted lines, giving substantially the same side elevation as shown in Fig. l. Fig. 6 is a view of the inside of the lid, showing the cutter and guide fixed in position; and Fig. 7 shows how the cutter is used.

Figs. 1 and 2 show the cutter and guide geometrically to a small scale, and Figs. 3, 4, and 5 geometrically show the cutter and guide to a larger scale, while Figs. 6 and 7 are isometric views.

A. is the tin box, and B the removable lid. carrying the steel portion (l, forming the cutter and guide, in which 0 is the cutting end, and c the guide fitting over the outside edge of the box in the operation of cutting. The side of the lid is cut in two places and the metal bent back to receive the bent steel portion U, when the cut portion of the tin is again tightened down upon the cutter to fix it in the required position, as shown in Fig. 6. The thick black line (I in Fig. 7 indicates the space left by the cutter.

What we claim as our invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. A cutter for sealed tin boxes, consisting of a steel strip doubled to form a guide at one end and a cutting edge at the other, and a portion partly stamped out of the flange of the removable lid receiving the cutter, which is secured by closing the cut portion tightly l ceiving the cutter and holding it vertically, upon it so that the cutter and guide project substantially as herein described and shown. at the lower edge of the flange, substantially In witness whereof we have hereunto set our as herein described. hands in the presence of two witnesses.

2. A cutter for sealed tin boxes, consisting HENRY JAMES LANGLEY. of a steel strip 0 doubled upon itself having ILLIAM ERNEST SMITH. one end 0 sharpened to form a cutting edge Witnesses: and the other end 0 bent back to form a guide, WVM. TEARLs,

and a holder in the rim of the box-cover, re- FREDERICK PORTER. 

